


With a Heart of Gingerbread

by TheAwkwardLadyJay



Series: 25 Days of Ego Christmas [14]
Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Baking, Gen, I promise, It's not gay, No Romance, anti is a little emotional, anti is appreciative, chase is clearly a dad, chase is getting over his fear tho, gingerbread cookies, just two guys being bros, that sounded gay, the egos are all still scared of anti
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-15
Updated: 2017-12-15
Packaged: 2019-02-15 00:25:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13019373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheAwkwardLadyJay/pseuds/TheAwkwardLadyJay
Summary: Silence fell between them. Anti glared at the cookies, tapping angrily at the table, his fingers glitching in and out of the wood. Static was filling the room, the hum turning almost deafening. Chase started to panic slightly. He had never dealt with the full brunt of Anti’s anger and he didn’t really want to experience that.





	With a Heart of Gingerbread

**Author's Note:**

> Here's day 14! The prompt is Gingerbread  
> I was getting nothing out of my studying, so I decided to write for a bit. That was probably a bad idea because this is kind of a mess, but it still works. I've always liked the idea of the other egos being scared of Anti at first because you know, he's a knife-wielding maniac. But because I live off of fluff and happiness, I also love the idea of the egos slowly getting over their fear and accepting him, so here's that in a story.

Chase hummed happily as he slapped the pile of dough onto the counter. It had been almost a year since he had made gingerbread and he had missed the sweet scent of it. He grabbed the rolling pin and started flattening the pile, making quick work of it despite its thickness. He was about to grab the cookie cutters when the unmistakable squeak of the kitchen door opening made him freeze.

He huffed, “Jackie, I’ve already told you. You can’t have any until the cookies are done. Now get out.” He turned to glare at the door and froze, his breath catching nervously in his chest, “Oh. Hi, Anti.”

The glitch was looking around the room curiously, hands shoved in his pockets. His mismatched eyes wandered to Chase and the man felt a shiver run through him. No matter how often he saw the black around the shining green iris, Chase could never get used to it.

“Sorry,” Anti mumbled, “I didn’t realize you were in here.”

He started to back out of the room, hands still stuffed in his pockets. He glitched softly and for a moment, Chase thought he saw tears streaking the demon’s face.

“Wait, Anti,” he called before his brain could stop him, “Since you’re here, could you help me for a minute?”

The glitch stopped and stared at him, his eyebrows drawing together in a halfhearted glower, “Sure,” he grumbled.

Chase smiled and pointed at a bowl behind him, “Could you whip up some more frosting? I think I made a few too many cookies for what I’ve got,” he gestured helplessly at the ginormous gingerbread pancake in front of him.

Anti eyed it for a minute before his eyes wandered to the table, where two plates of warm cookies already sat. He raised an eyebrow at Chase, “You think?”

“Hey, I wanted to make sure Jackie didn’t eat all of them! Besides, I’ve never seen you complain about having too many cookies.”

Anti shrugged, moving over to the bowl and swiping a small piece of gingerbread on his way there, “You’ve got me there. Is there a recipe I’m working with or am I just throwing shit together and praying?”

Chase chuckled, “In that first cabinet. It’s on top of the recipe books.”

Anti followed his directions, swiping the paper from its spot and looking over it carefully. He sighed and started gathering all of the ingredients, tossing them into the bowl haphazardly. Neither of them talked and Chase was okay with that. He had grown accustomed to the glitch’s presence, but he was still jumpy around the demon. His voice was unsettling and the eye thing was extremely unnerving.

“What do you want me to do with this?”

Chase yelped, dropping his cookie cutter and slapping a hand to his chest, “Oh sweet umbrella on a keg stand, you scared the shit out of me!”

Anti snickered, a brief smile washing over his face before it disappeared again, “Sorry. But what am I doing with this?”

Chase swallowed thickly and gestured vaguely at the counter, “You can just put it over there. I’m not going to need it for a bit.”

The demon nodded and set the bowl on the counter, shoving his hands back into his pockets, a violent glitch tearing through him, “Okay. Is that all you needed?”

Chase eyed him warily, “Are you okay?”

Anti looked surprised before the expression glitched off his face, “I’m fine. Why do you ask?”

Chase shook his head, “You just seem tense, I guess. Tenser than usual.”

“Well, I’m not,” there was a defensive tone to Anti’s voice now, “Are we done here?”

“Why aren’t you glitching everywhere? You’re usually all over the place.”

Another glitch shivered through the demon. He glared at Chase, his one green eye beginning to glow a little bit brighter, “I’m fine, Chase. Stop asking stupid questions,” he turned to the door, snarl set in place, “Don’t burn the cookies.”

That was it. Chase grabbed the rolling pin and smacked Anti upside the head with it. The demon hissed and whirled back around to face him. Before he could get any words out, Chase smacked him again, this time on the shoulder, “Don’t you dare tell me how to run my kitchen. Now get your ass over to that table and sit down. You are going to tell me what is wrong, or so help me, I will feed all of your cookies to Jackie.”

Anti stared at him in shock, idly rubbing his shoulder, “When did you become so bossy?”

“When I had kids. Table, now.”

Anti rolled his eyes but did as he was told, trudging over and plopping into one of the chairs, eyeing the rolling pin warily.

Chase followed, sitting next to him, “Seriously, Anti, what’s wrong?”

“Like you actually care,” the demon spat, “You’re just trying to baby me because you can’t baby your kids.”

Chase flinched at the cold-hearted reminder and inhaled deeply. He set the rolling pin on the table with a heavy thump, “Look, if you want to keep pushing all of us away, then fine. But I’m trying to help you. If you don’t want help, you can leave.”

Silence fell between them. Anti glared at the cookies, tapping angrily at the table, his fingers glitching in and out of the wood. Static was filling the room, the hum turning almost deafening. Chase started to panic slightly. He had never dealt with the full brunt of Anti’s anger and he didn’t really want to experience that.

Eventually, the demon sighed and sat back, the static cutting off abruptly, “Sometimes everything just gets to me,” he mumbled, looking extremely unhappy about his decision, “Nobody in this house actually trusts me, I know that. I don’t blame any of you, it’s perfectly understandable after everything I did, but it’s still disheartening. I think Sean is the one that trusts me the most, which is great and all, but I don’t live with him. I live with all of you dorks and it’s hard to know that at any given moment, you could all decide you don’t want me here anymore and kick me out.”

As he talked, his form stopped glitching, his voice evening out until he almost seemed normal. If it wasn’t for his eyes, he could pass as just another ego.

“See? That’s what I’m talking about,” the demon pointed at Chase’s face, “Right now, you’re thinking about how abnormal I am, how you wish I was just like the rest of you. I’ve tried to change, but there are just some things that I can’t help. Like the glitching. I know it upsets all of you, don’t think I don’t notice the flinches every time it happens.”

Chase opened his mouth to argue, but Anti glared at him, glitching violently. Chase felt himself grimace at the sight. Anti nodded pointedly.

“Don’t try to argue with me. I’ve thought long and hard about all of this. I know what I’m imagining and what’s real. And the hatred you all feel for me is very real. Sometimes I wonder if I would be better off going and living in the void with Dark. He hates me more than all of you, but at least that hatred is expected. Here it’s just painful.”

Another silence fell between them. Chase didn’t know what to say. He looked down at the rolling pin, biting his lip. After a few minutes passed, he looked up, meeting Anti’s unsettling gaze, “I’m sorry,” he whispered, “I had no idea that’s how you felt. I can’t say that you’re wrong because in some cases you’re completely right.”

Anti closed his eyes, a pained expression covering his features.

“There are times when it’s really hard to like you. Like when you play your little pranks and dye all of our heads pink for a week. Or when you trick us into doing something embarrassing. But, Anti, we don’t hate you all the time. Maybe your glitching is a little unnerving to see and maybe your eyes are a little intense, but we’re getting used to all that. We have noticed that you’ve been trying harder to be nicer to all of us, especially the Doc. I guess we just never thought to tell you.”

Anti grimaced, clearly not believing him.

Chase looked around, trying to think of something that would get his point across. His eyes landed on the gingerbread and he smiled, grabbing one of the cookies and holding it up to Anti, “You’d never guess it, but these little cookies are a pain in the ass to make. They take a while and if you mess up even a little, they won’t taste right. And that’s before you decorate them. They really kind of suck to make, but they’re worth it because they’re delicious.

“You’re like gingerbread. Sometimes you’re hard to deal with. You push everybody away and you play fun at anyone who’s still close to you. If anybody remains after the pranks, you get angry and push them away too. That’s your recipe. This,” he gestured at Anti’s sullen form, “is your frosting. However, every time you push us away, we always come back. You know why? Because you’re a good guy, Anti. You feel bad about pushing us away and while you’re too prideful to just apologize, we can see how sorry you are. You’re a nice person, Anti, and we really do appreciate you. Maybe we need to start showing that more.”

A small smile had crawled onto Anti’s face and he laughed, “You know, Chase, out of all of us, I’m really happy you’re the one with kids. You really know how to give an inspiring speech.”

Chase grinned and put the cookie back, grabbing his rolling pin, “Why thank you. Now, how about we finish up these cookies?”

Anti grinned and hopped over to the counter, digging through the cookie cutter drawer. Chase watched him exasperatedly, gesturing at the pile of cookie cutters already on the counter. Anti popped up with a knife-shaped cutter in his hand, “This is what I’m talking about.”

Chase rolled his eyes but didn’t argue. He just watched as Anti started to slice away at the gingerbread, a broad smile still plastered on his face. It had been a long time since he had seen Anti this happy.

He shook himself from his reverie and picked up his own cookie cutter. For the rest of the day, they baked together, Chase’s happy humming joined by Anti’s happy static.

**Author's Note:**

> I have my last finals tomorrow, thank goodness. Once they're done, I'm going to completely devote my time to writing and hopefully will get out a couple of other ideas I've had along with these little tales.  
> Also, I just want to thank all of you for all of the support you've been giving me. It's so nice to be able to come here and see all the amazingly sweet comments you guys leave. Especially during this horrible week. Love you all! <3


End file.
